Saturday, March 26, 2011

I joined the church choir for the Easter service. This is a one-day three-services kind of opportunity. And yes I will be up there on stage with 50 or 60 other people singing my little heart out celebrating the awesomeness of Christ's victory!

If you have ever heard me sing you may be asking yourself..."who would let her join the choir?" or "yikes, have you heard her voice?". Believe me friends, the voice I hear in my own ears is not one I would classify as "good." It isn't awful but in no way would I win a Canadian Idol audition :) So, onto what really matters....

Last years Easter service was remarkable to me. I finally GOT IT! I finally understood what happened and it meshed with my soul that Jesus died....yes...sad but true. BUT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD and was victorious over the enemy. I cried during the service....I cried in the van on the way home. I remember seeing the people in the choir worshiping and loving the Lord with all of their hearts...the excitement I felt was exhilarating. I want every. single. person to feel that...it is amazing!

So when the worship Pastor at our church announced that they were looking for choir members immediately the thought came into my head that I should be up there. I told Wes about it joking that if there was enough of us that they could drown out my voice. I did bring it up at one of our Sunday night Life Groups about this prompting I had (why me...why this voice??). So that was the end of it for a few weeks. I left it alone. Then this past Wednesday I was leading my last Friendship Factor bible study and we were talking about God Confidence. In developing this I was teaching (from a book, not my own ideas) that to develop more of our confidence in Him and what we can do through Him we need to risk stepping out in faith and do something you believe God wants you to do. So immediately in my head comes the the prompting I have received about the choir. I share this with my ladies....2 of them are in the choir as well and encourage me to come to Thursday practice. That afternoon I email Pastor Dallas and ask him if there is still room, he sends me this:

Hi Shauna,

It is great to hear from you. We would love to have you as part of the Easter Choir. Our first music rehearsal is tomorrow. Everyone else has had the songs for 2 weeks now, but I would still enjoy having you come and be a part of it. I can give you the music tomorrow along with a practice CD. If you are willing to play a little bit of catch up and can make the rest of our rehearsals(Thursday March 24, Thursday March 31, Thursday April 7, and Wednesday April 20 - each from 7pm-9pm) then we can make it work.

There have been a few occasions when the worship leaders have gotten together and talked about people who inspire us as we lead. You and Wes have certainly come up in those discussions. Your passion for Christ and desire to praise Him flows out of both of you. Thanks for setting that example.

Let me know what you think. Hope it works out! Talk to you soon.

Dallas

I was pumped after I read this email and for the rest of the day really....more encouraging words...ok Lord I haven't heard anything bad from anyone yet...just something within myself saying I can't possibly do it. Well the enemy will not win as I step out to bring more of His kingdom here on earth...no siree!

So Thursday night I go to practice. He puts me in the "soprano" group. The first notes coming out of the others ladies mouths I knew I was in the wrong group...I can't sing that high. So I left and joined the "alto" group in another room. I took my sheet music and tried to act like I knew what I was doing...I know the songs in my head...they were familiar to me. What I didn't know was that we (as choir ppl) are responsible to have some control over our voices and sing according to a key or note or something like that. So the Ashley, the leader who was playing the piano, was saying stuff about C sharp and E...and the words were so foreign to me. Ladies were writing notes on their sheets....Jodie, a pastors wife who I stood beside, offered me a pencil for note-taking and I wondered what I was supposed to write down. Within the first 10 minutes I felt defeated...tears actually came to my eyes and feelings of failure were flooding me. I fought them...no no no...tears you will not fall dang it! Keep trying I heard in my head...then You don't have to come back again...just get through this one. And then I would focus on the words I was singing...."You are stronger....You are stronger...." Then words like "melody" "harmony" "riff" "tenor" "bridge" and a variety of letters were being shot out at me. As I sang and we went through the songs I noticed the music notes on the paper...as they went up on the bar our voices were supposed to go up....OK I could do that....to a certain extent. So, in the end.....I made it through to 9pm. And I will go back and practice again...because with my voice I worship Him as it says in

Psalm 100:2

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

So all I can say is DO IT...whatever you may feel a prompting to do for His Kingdom I challenge you to step out in God-confidence and trust in Him.

Monday, March 14, 2011

This past week we had a couple of parties to celebrate our Addison turning 5 years old. Wow...already....5....that is all I can think about. This boy of ours has the kindest heart....today I was sick in bed and Wes stayed home from work for the morning so I could attempt to sleep it off. Addison comes into the room with a lego "flower" that he created and a little card. Wes said he came up with the idea all on his own. He is also so very generous...with his birthday money he chose to buy Asher and Aidan something too. And last week at school he made a beaded necklace for me and another necklace for his friend Cody...that gave me the idea to make beaded necklaces at his birthday party...check it out below:

The partying started out on Thursday the 10th, his actual BIRTHday. Pancake breakfast at McDonalds Play Place. (Yes only 2 of the candles lit...silly things...)

Here is the birthday boy on his birthday PARTY day...HotWheels cupcakes as requested with green icing (his favorite color). The kids seems pretty excited to each get to take a car home. Yes Addison chose the top cupcake with the green car...

The beaded necklace/bracelet activity. Quite successful with 9 little ones and a whole lotta beads...tying the knots was another story....

Soooo happy one of my bestest friends Jen grabbed my camera and captured that we pray and give each of our children a birthday blessing at their parties. God is so good to us....that even sounds like an understatement as I type it....God is beyond good to us.

Thank you Jesus for this past year in allowing us to parent your child Addison. He adds so much to our family and to each of our lives. I am excited to see the work You are doing in this boy and pray your continued favor and blessing over and around him as he goes about his next year. AMEN

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

A few weeks ago we went to Airdrie to watch Aidan participate in a taekwondo tournament. These are exciting times for me as I get to see Aidan really shine in his sport of taekwondo. He has been involved in tkd since he was 5 years old and I love how he has developed his tkd skills. Aidan did awesome at the tournament!

Sparring match that he won....won one and lost one which gave him a silver medal in that category.

Poomse - Pattern that each belt level has to complete and they get evaluated on techniques. These always look way to complicated for me...I don't think I could remember all the steps.

Then on the next weekend, Champion Taekwondo did their belt testing and Grand Master Park came down from Edmonton to mark the students. Aidan passed, and did so super dee duper! So now he owns a red belt and keeps on striving to get his junior black belt. I am so proud of our boy!!

I love the Lord and want to live the life that God has planned out for me. I am married to an amazing man and we have 3 sons and 1 daughter. Being a MOM is my joy even with its struggles and hard times. The joy of the Lord is my strength and I strive to seek Him in all I do.